Yeremia 30:12

The Lord Will Heal the Wounds of Judah

30:12 Moreover, ¹  the Lord says to the people of Zion, ² 

“Your injuries are incurable;

your wounds are severe. ³ 

Yehezkiel 34:4

34:4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness ⁴  you have ruled over them.

Hosea 5:13

5:13 When Ephraim saw ⁵  his sickness

and Judah saw his wound,

then Ephraim turned ⁶  to Assyria,

and begged ⁷  its great king ⁸  for help.

But he will not be able to heal you!

He cannot cure your wound! ⁹ 

[30:12]  ¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) here is parallel to the one in v. 5 that introduces the first oracle. See the discussion in the translator’s note there.

[30:12]  ² tn The pronouns in vv. 10-17 are second feminine singular referring to a personified entity. That entity is identified in v. 17 as Zion, which here stands for the people of Zion.

[30:12]  ³ sn The wounds to the body politic are those of the incursions from the enemy from the north referred to in Jer 4:6; 6:1 over which Jeremiah and even God himself have lamented (Jer 8:21; 10:19; 14:17). The enemy from the north has been identified as Babylon and has been identified as the agent of God’s punishment of his disobedient people (Jer 1:15; 4:6; 25:9).

[34:4]  ⁴ tn The term translated “harshness” is used to describe the oppression the Israelites suffered as slaves in Egypt (Exod 1:13).

[5:13]  ⁵ tn Hosea employs three preterites (vayyiqtol forms) in verse 13a-b to describe a past-time situation.

[5:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “went to” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); CEV “asked help from.”

[5:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “sent to” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[5:13]  ⁸ tc The MT reads מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב (melekh yarev, “a contentious king”). This is translated as a proper name (“king Jareb”) by KJV, ASV, NASB. However, the stative adjective יָרֵב (“contentious”) is somewhat awkward. The words should be redivided as an archaic genitive-construct מַלְכִּי רָב (malki rav, “great king”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) which preserves the old genitive hireq yod ending. This is the equivalent of the Assyrian royal epithet sarru rabbu (“the great king”). See also the tc note on the same phrase in 10:6.

[5:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “your wound will not depart from you.”

[5:13]  sn Hosea personifies Ephraim’s “wound” as if it could depart from the sickly Ephraim (see the formal equivalent rendering in the preceding tn). Ephraim’s sinful action in relying upon an Assyrian treaty for protection will not dispense with its problems.